1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for controlling progress of a video game by displaying a player character on an image display screen of an image display apparatus, and by controlling an action of the player character displayed on the image display screen in response to operation(s) by a player.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, various kinds of so-called role playing games (RPG; that is, a game in which a player plays a role of a character in a world of the game to accomplish a predetermined object while enjoying a process that the character grows through various experiences) have been provided.
In such a RPG, generally, a player character acting in response to operations by the player wins a battle against an enemy character thwarting accomplishment of a predetermined object in the RPG, by which various benefits such as an experiential value are supplied to the player character.
Further, recently, in such an RPG, it becomes active to play the RPG game by exchanging game information on the video game, such as a message and an item, between other unspecified players using radio communication or the like.
On playing such type of video game in which game information is exchanged, for example, the following technique is executed as a method of heightening interest of the player in the video game further. Namely, there has been proposed a technique in which when an item is exchanged between a plurality of mobile game apparatuses via a constructed communication network, the items presented from the respective mobile game apparatuses are shuffled, whereby it is not determined in advance that each of the mobile game apparatuses can obtain any item. This technique attempted to heighten interest of the player in the video game (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-254012).
Further, there has also been proposed a technique in which the players can in advance confirm an exchangeable item between the mobile game apparatuses, and the item for which a destination to deliver is determined can be obtained surely in the case where a specific action (for example, shuffle of items to be exchanged) is completed (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-319135).
However, in the mobile game apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publications No. 2005-254012 and No. 2005-319135 described above, in the case where the game information such as an item to be exchanged between the mobile game apparatuses, the game information is configured so as to be able to be obtained surely when it is shuffled or the specific action is completed. Thus, there has been a problem that it is difficult to present further interest in the game play to the players because there is no element to become a large obstacle or difficulty against the player when to obtain the game information.